Gold, the short story

This is the scheming, steamy, suspenseful, bizarre 3,000-word short story from July 2011 that preceded the 81,000-word novel Gold, a summer story (2013). Some of the characters, scenes, and plot in this quick-read beach tale were used in the later novel. The action takes place in Carolina Beach, Wilmington, and Fort Fisher, NC, USA. Revised and reformatted for kindle and most other readers.